Count my grandparents among them. Grandma lived on a farm...no lack of food. She used to say that they didn't have any money, but neither did anyone else. And, that wasn't a whole lot different from when times were good.
My great-grandfather was a mechanic, who could fix damn near anything. Lots of demand for that in a rough economic patch. Grandpa said that they more-or-less lived on a barter system.
Even during the last Great Depression, there were large numbers of people who lived very well...
Yes—very true-—
—great-grandmother was a maid for a very wealthy and they supplemented her pay with leftover food—my grandfather ate quite well—
—great-grandfather owned a bar-—EVERYONE drank away their worries after prohibtion was repealed